Wednesday, December 28, 2016

Once again, “It’s the most wonderful time of the year”! I simply cannot get
enough of the dry harmattan air, the early morning and evening haze, the
bustling energy seemingly at boiling point across the major markets and
shopping malls as buyers and sellers rush to make last minute transactions. Then there is the awesome food. Speaking of
which, would any Christmas/ New Year’s Day menu be complete without the wonderful
staple of jollof rice? Our mum certainly took no prisoners with her Yuletide jollof
rice. Hers was simply the best, no contest! Add her equally delicious teeth
sinking - lip smacking- finger licking fried fresh chicken, and the world to a
young me then could not have been more perfect! So good was her jollof rice
that you would find me happily scrapping away and eating the burnt ‘bottom pot’
portion of the rice even after a couple of days as though my life depended on
it!

Saturday, December 03, 2016

1. President - elect Donald Trump and his opponent, Hilary Clinton during the first Presidential Debate

The highly
anticipated election for the 45th President of the United States of America has
finally been dispensed with. Phew!We no see or hear word that
period! Preceded by a contentious, acrimonious and no holds
barred contest, the emergence of Donald Trump as the President- elect over the
preferred candidate, Hillary Clinton sent shock waves across the world. In
Nigeria, we went to sleep with Hillary in an early lead but woke up on the
9th of November 2016 with the unlikely and underrated Donald Trump
getting the required number of Electoral College votes to win. What a red
letter day!!

One of the
many campaign policies of President-elect Trump was the commitment of at least
$ 500 billion to infrastructural spending over a five year period. The spending
is required to fix America’s ageing and decaying infrastructure – airports,
schools, hospitals, bridges, and train stations. From all indications, American
architects will be very busy! It was against the backdrop of this
campaign policy that the executives of the American Institute of Architects
(AIA), the umbrella body for registered architects in the United States,
pledged its commitment to working with President-elect Trump in the
strengthening of the nation’s ageing and decaying public infrastructure. The
outrage and backlash from the architectural community was fierce and immediate
forcing the AIA executivesto
publicly apologize for what it termed “a hasty and tone deaf post – election
message”.

Hold it! Stop I said!! You may want to think
twice before you make that bed of yours or tidy up your room! Yes you heard
right. That unmade bed and untidy room can make you famous and make you very rich, and I am talking in millions of foreign currency here. You think I’m joking? Okay let's confirm from Tracey Emin, the British artist whose messy
(dirty)bed/room installation sold for a record £ 2.5 million in 2015. The installation is currently on loan for public viewing for the next decade at the Tate Modern Museum, London.

About Me

I am Odigie Agatha who in her spare time fancies that she is global in her outlook yet indigenous in her pride (whatever that means!!) A chartered architect, she firmly believes that life can be optimized through excellent design. Agatha is hung up on fashion, writing and visual arts. Her work-life mantra is “Huge doors are swung on small hinges”. She sometimes sounds sensible on Twitter @Afroagatha, not very often though!!